Behavioural Insights Projects

We seek to increase voluntary appearances for people with outstanding Warrants to Arrest (WTA) through reminder phone calls from Māori Wardens and Police. This Auckland-based project follows a proof-of-concept trial in the Eastern District, in which Māori Wardens made phone calls to people with outstanding WTAs and we compared voluntary appearance rates for those who were reached via phone to those who were not. While this trial in the Eastern District showed indicative evidence that phone…

Institution: Ara Poutama (Department of Corrections)

Team: Behavioural Science Aotearoa

Small businesses were sent behaviorally-informed emails encouraging them to apply to the Growth Vouchers program. A key part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ (BIS) remit is to provide support to small businesses in the United Kingdom. BIS has explored a number of initiatives to help these businesses grow. One of these initiatives was ‘Growth Vouchers’ – a program of matched funding with a £30 million budget. Businesses could apply for funding to help subsidize the…

Institution: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

Team: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

This project aims to improve the effectiveness of medicines policy, develop a strategy for the adaptation of new medicines entering the system, focus on the behavior of selected stakeholder groups, and improve the effectiveness of existing medicines in the system.

Institution: Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic

Team: Behavioral and Experimental Economics Team (BEET)

Challenge The City of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania offers a discount to low-income senior citizens living in the municipality on their water bills. Senior water and sewer customers can apply to receive 25 percent off their payments for water in an effort to reduce the financial burden on those elderly citizens with lesser means. However, despite the fact that this would benefit the citizens in question, the City of Philadelphia noticed that many low-income seniors eligible for the discount were…

Institution: City of Philadephia

Team: Philadelphia Behavioral Science Initiative

This experiment involved making the information on the WBSO website clearer and more personally relevant to entrepreneurs. The visibility of the call-to-action was also enhanced. The study showed that entrepreneurs were prompted to spend more time exploring the possibilities offered by the Research and Development (Promotion) Act (WBSO) and that they read the information more carefully. Why this experiment was conducted: number of new applications below expectations The Research and Development…

Institution: Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO)

PROJECT SUMMARY ideas42 and Busara Center for Behavioral Economics worked with a major bank and telecommunications company in Nigeria to send behaviorally-informed SMS messages to customers to increase their use of mobile bank accounts. IMPACT Effects varied by message and audience; notably, injunctive norm messages led to a 45 percent increase in the number of clients making deposits among females with active accounts, from 0.82% to 1.81%. RESULTS Design ideas42 and the Busara Center for…

Institution: Busara Center for Behavioral Economics

Team: Ideas42

ideas24 partnered with the Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) to better understand the behavioral barriers preventing corn and soybean farmers from adopting cover crops and enrolling in PFI's cover-crop cost-share program. Using what we learned from administrative data, farmer interviews and direct feedback during user-testing, we then jointly designed behaviorally informed communication interventions, which included mailers as well as a farmer referral campaign. To evaluate the potential impact of…

Institution: Ideas42

Team: Ideas42

The Program of Applied Research on Climate Action in Canada (PARCA Canada) combines behavioural science (BeSci) insights and methods with robust policy analysis to promote climate action. One of the main areas of focus involves the launch of a longitudinal survey that will, over time, collect data on research questions of interest to the promotion of climate action in Canada (e.g. transportation, home energy use, waste management, engagement with nature, preparedness for extreme weather,…

Institution: Privy Council Office

Team: Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU)

Repairability of laptop computers: the Behavioral Sciences team of the interministerial department for transformation is piloting a study on the display of an index intended to clarify consumer choice. The objective: to support the General Commission for Sustainable Development (CGDD) in the implementation of this new tool.

Institution: Direction Interministérielle de la Transformation Publique (DITP)

Team: Equipe Sciences Comportementales

Soiled waste disposal areas in municipal public housing buildings are not only a major nuisance for residents, but also cause high cleaning costs. The aim of the present study was to develop behavioral measures to promote cleanliness and to test them in a field experiment with about 400 waste disposal areas. The present paper compares two System-1 (large posters displaying watching eyes and a natural landscape) and two System-2 (financial information, information on normative behavior and…

Institution: Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS)

Team: Insight Austria